GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 vs GeForce GTX 980

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce GTX 980, which uses a 28 nm design. nVidia has set the core frequency at 1126 MHz. The GDDR5 RAM is set to run at a speed of 1750 MHz on this specific card. It features 2048 SPUs along with 128 TAUs and 64 ROPs.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		47 Watts
GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
	Difference: 118 Watts (251%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce GTX 980 should perform quite a bit faster than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 in general. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		12800 MB/sec
	Difference: 211200 (1650%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is much (about 1568%) better at AF than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		8640 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 135488 (1568%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980 is a lot (more or less 1568%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2, and also should be capable of handling higher resolutions without losing too much performance. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2		4320 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 67744 (1568%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of data (in units of megabytes per second) that can be transferred past the external memory interface in a second. The number is worked out by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory clock speed. If it uses DDR type RAM, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, High Dynamic Range and higher screen resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum texture map elements (texels) that are applied in one second. This is worked out by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in a second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels the video card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the clock speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for outputting the pixels (image) to the screen. The actual pixel fill rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the ability to reach the max fill rate.